Rishi Sunak needs to clarify whether Suella Braverman leaked market-sensitive data before she resigned and then was reappointed as home secretary, Labour said on Friday.
Amid further warnings that her re-appointment was a mistake, Pat McFadden, a shadow Treasury minister, said the prime minister needed to clarify urgently whether companies or individuals could have benefited financially from her security breach.
Braverman resigned from Liz Truss’s government last week after it emerged she had sent sensitive documents from her personal account to John Hayes, a Tory backbencher with second jobs for an energy trading company and a Saudi-linked education company. She was subsequently reappointed by Sunak this week, just days after she became one of his key rightwing Eurosceptic backers for the leadership.
It was reported on Friday by the Sun that Braverman also leaked details about a “growth visa” proposed by Truss and how this could have affected Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts.
McFadden wrote to Sunak on Friday asking whether the leak was about immigration policy and “growth visas”, and seeking assurances that the information revealed by the home secretary “has not and will not fall into the hands of actors in the UK gilt market”.
“It is astonishing that the home secretary may have leaked information about immigration policy which could have an impact on the OBR forecast and the decisions the government is considering in the run up to the autumn statement,” he said.
“It is also astonishing that the prime minister would overlook such a breach and reappoint someone who resigned over fears they had broken the ministerial code in this way.
“We need urgent reassurances now that no market sensitive data was leaked, that the government has not undermined the Office for Budget Responsibility further, and that the home secretary will never be linked to a leak like this again.”
Sunak backed Braverman on Friday, saying: “The home secretary has acknowledged the mistake, she’s recognised she made a mistake, she’s taken accountability for that and that’s the right thing.”
However, he declined to deny suggestions officials warned him against reinstating Braverman.
“As I said in parliament earlier this week, she raised this topic with me when I discussed reappointing her as home secretary and I’m confident that she’s learned from her mistake,” he said, appearing to clarify earlier remarks that she had “raised” the issue of her mistake rather than being confronted with it originally.
Bob Kerslake, the former head of the civil service, told Times Radio that reappointing Braverman was a “potential bomb” under the government.
“I think it’s the first mistake by Rishi Sunak,” he said. “Firstly, because somebody breaches the code in this way, and then seems to escape any real challenge and punishment, it says to others, well, maybe it doesn’t matter, maybe we can ignore it as well?
“Secondly, I think she seems to be a serial leaker from all we can establish. And so she has leaked once, there’s every chance she might do it again. And that will be bad news, I think, for Rishi Sunak. My honest advice to him would be to get on and fill his ethics adviser, as it’s often called, as quickly as possible.”
